The Twelve Deaths of Christmas

 The Twelve Deaths of Christmas (1979) by Marian Babson (Ruth Marian Stenstreem)

It's the holiday season and folks are busy shopping, putting up Christmas trees, and planning parties. Some are humming songs like "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." And one dark soul is humming their own song to "The Twelve Days of Christmas." A string of nasty murders breaks in London during the Christmas rush and though the press hasn't yet made any connections Detective Superintendent Knowles is certain that they have a most dangerous killer on their hands. Someone who looks and behaves normally--who may not even realize what they have done--until something triggers them.

The killings are opportunistic. The murderer uses everyday items as their instruments of death--from a heavy ink stand to an aerosol can of fake snow to a sharpened pop top. No planning needed, no weapons to trace to their rightful owner. It isn't until the killer sets a fire ablaze in a house near their own rooming house that the police have a real clue to follow up. A set of oil-soaked rags were used to start the fire and if the lab boys have enough left in the remains to examine, they'll be able to tell what kind of oil it was. But will they get the report in time to prevent the twelfth death of Christmas?

Babson does so many things well with this story. She sets up the tension and builds the suspense and balances that against the holiday background. She introduces the boarders in the rooming house and manages to make each of them seem just odd enough that they might be killer. She alternates chapters where we see into the killer's thoughts (without revealing enough to let us know whose thoughts they are) with chapters that provide an outsider's view of each character--and several of them seem to act upon thoughts that we've just had shared by the killer. For example, our villain suffers from excruciating headaches and we get their thoughts about that and the need to take aspirin. Then in the next chapter, we see several characters taking aspirin or mentioning how rotten their head feels. Occasionally Babson takes us to see what the police are up to as well. But the main action is inside the killer's head and inside the boarding house. It makes for a claustrophobic atmosphere--very representative of the net that is slowly closing around our culprit as the police begin to zero in on the area of London where the killer must be. Overall, a very interesting twist on the inverted mystery. In this case, we share the thoughts of the killer and see through their eyes, but we aren't told whose eyes we've been gazing through until the very end. And a nice suspenseful plot. ★★★★

However, as a participant in the Medical Examiners Reading Challenge I do have a bone to pick with Ms. Babson. There are eleven murders that I can't claim for the challenge because she couldn't be bothered to tell us the names of the victims. We have an unnamed newsagent, an unnamed attorney, two unnamed children, an unnamed shop assistant, an unnamed mother out shopping, an unnamed young man who plays his music too loud, and four unnamed people in a burned house. So who do I get to count? Relatives of folks who live in the rooming house where the killer lives whose deaths are mentioned--and the killer who dies on the operating table at the end of the book. Really, Marian, were you just not feeling creative in the name department in 1979?

First line: It was a gratuitous insult on his part to introduce the subject of Broadmoor into what had hitherto been a perfectly amicable conversation.

Last line: "Happy New Year!"
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Deaths = 4 (one natural; two auto accident; one died during an operation)